1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a time information acquiring apparatus to which a time code signal included in a standard radio wave is inputted so as to acquire time information, and to a radio-controlled timepiece including the time information acquiring apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a conventional radio-controlled timepiece which, in order to generate time data by receiving a standard radio wave (standard time and frequency signal), first, detects a second synchronization point (0.00 sec., 1.00 sec., to 59.00 sec.) of a time code signal extracted from the standard radio wave, second, detects a minute synchronization point (x min. 00 sec., the “x” is an arbitrary value of minutes) thereof, and third, perform a code determination thereof based on the second synchronization point and the minute synchronization point so as to generate time data.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2006-337048 discloses a configuration which performs a code determination with respect to a signal waveform demodulated from the standard radio wave, stores the data of the code determination result, detects an accurate minute position (minute synchronization point) based on the stored data, and generates time data based thereon.
However, in such a conventional method for generating time data, when the generated time data is determined as inconsistent, it has to be redone from the minute synchronization point detecting process. Therefore, the data of the time code signal acquired by then becomes useless, and hence it takes a long time until accurate time data is acquired.
The configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2006-337048 also requires starting over from the code determination with respect to the signal waveform by receiving the standard radio wave when the generated time data is determined as wrong time data.
The present invention provides a time information acquiring apparatus and a radio-controlled timepiece which, even when the minute synchronization point is wrongly detected, can promptly acquire accurate time data by correcting the minute synchronization point without wasting the data acquired by then.